An art historian has put Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx and the Bash Street Kids in the same frame as the Old Masters.
Artwork from the best-selling DC Thomson comic have gone on display at a historic National Trust country estate.
And experts there have said even Dutch master Rembrandt would have seen the genius in the Beano’s famous characters.
Louise Govier, general manager of Mottisfont Abbey, Hampshire, and an art historian, said: “I’m not saying Rembrandt and The Beano are the same, but there are similarities.
“Rembrandt would challenge himself to do more with less. I see something in the simplicity and pared-back nature of these works that is doing a similar sort of thing.”
Official Beano illustrator Nigel Parkinson, who draws every strip by hand, said: “It’s something you have to immerse yourself in. You have to know why the character works.”
The exhibition Beano Time Travellers! opened at Mottisfont Abbey yesterday as part of the comic’s 80th anniversary celebrations.
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